Missing Michael Bennett

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 11:04am

It seems everyone who got to know Michael Bennett, fell a little bit in love with him. But that is another story.

Aside from missing the guy, it makes the mind ache thinking of the theatrical treasures he alas could not give us.

My Michael Bennett experiences, to the best I can remember were:

Promises, Promises
Company
Follies
Seesaw
A Chorus Line
Dreamgirls

How very brilliant he was. Following the trend of Jerome Robbins' Broadway and Fosse, I am very much looking forward to
a celebration of his work. Perhaps it can be called

MICHAEL BENNETT'S MUSICALS

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 1:36pm

Don't forget his bombs: Ballroom, Twigs, and wasn't there one about sex starring Swoosie Kurtz?

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 1:40pm

The sex piece (entitled SCANDAL) is actually a fascinating case. It's not exactly a bomb because it never opened. I believe Ken Mandelbaum's book goes into deep detail about it's doomed history. It apparently contained some of Bennett's best work (from those who witnessed it) and I'm STILL unclear as to why it he shut it down in the workshop phase.

[magruder]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 1:51pm

I think I recall Mandelbaum writing that Bennett got cold feet about Scandal, because he worred about the reception for a musical about free love and sexual experimentation, from a director-choreographer who was succumbing to illness from AIDS, though Bennett was not public about his illness while he was alive.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 2:14pm

My memory could be fuzzy on this, but if I remember the Kevin Kelly book about Bennett correctly, I think Scandal was supposed to come after Dreamgirls and I think it was just as the AIDS epidemic hit and that's what caused the cold feet. People were backing off from the very notion of sex, let alone its depiction. Soap opera actors were afraid to even kiss. But this was years before the HIV test was available, so people didn't know who had HIV, they just got AIDS and died.

Interestingly, the lead character (which was a role that was probably going to make Swoozie a MAJOR star) was based on the life of Treva Silverman, the woman upon whom Mary Richards was also based on the Mary Tyler Moore show. I guess Scandal would have shown us a very different side of that woman!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 4:11pm

Namo is right. I remember a big uproar in Hollywood about the actresses being afraid to French kiss on screen for fear of getting AIDS. It was a very scary, uninformed time.

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 4:13pm

Remember when Linda Evans had to get an AIDS test cause she kissed Rock Hudson.

I'll never forget my mother saying, 'How could he kiss her when he knew he had AIDS?!?!?!?!'

Now...my mother knows better.

We all do.

[Cadriel]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 4:56pm

~sigh~

If Bennett hadn't gotten sick when he did, the long, misguided road CHESS took would never have happened, and the show might've been an actual success. So I miss him, yes.

-Wayne

[NBC]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 6:07pm

You know, I was thinking just last week that I'm ready for Bennett: The Musical!, a la Fosse and Jerome Robbins' Broadway.

Alas, the only shows of his I ever saw were A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls (the tour), and my memories of the latter are vague at best. But the recent movie Camp, which used Turkey Lurkey from Promises, Promises, as well as the recent retrospective of Tonys clips at the Museum of TV and Radio got me curious as to what the choreography from Ballroom and Seesaw looked like.
And I know the new Ted Chapin book on Follies will only further pique my curiosity.

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 6:21pm

I wasn't around when Michael's work was being done, but I do love what I know of his shows and what I read in The Longest Line.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 6:46pm

Ballroom, while classified as a bomb, was a beautiful show. I have a program from , I believe , "Here's Love" where he was one of the dancers

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/20/03 at 7:23pm

The only time I saw him (other than in the dancing ensemble of "Here's Love") was before "Seesaw" opened & he was going up the stairs of the theater discussing the theater & show with a few people. I consider Bennett,Champion & Fosse the Trinity & the 3 most talented directors/choreographers on the planet. A great loss when each passed on way too soon. Hard to say which was the best.